From the Director’s Desk We are glad that rain stopped so we could enjoy our Science Days’ activities on Thursday and Friday. Check out the Facebook photos. It’s great to watch students develop their creativity and experimentation with science. Competition is a great motivator! A big thank you to Mr. Horton and all of our classroom teachers for their support toward student enjoyment and learning. SURVEYS Surveys are one tool we use to make sure that we are constantly improving our school and the services we provide. In the second term, we had two communication surveys and one cafeteria survey. Please check out the results from two surveys below. We try to make our surveys short so that many people take them. We do pay attention to the results! Upcoming surveys include our end-of-the year Climate survey. This very important survey addresses our annual growth objectives. Please watch for this survey. Your participation is important! MAKERSPACE We need your help! I want to draw your attention to our new Makerspace. Makerspace provides a classroom for students to be involved in creating, designing, and making whatever their imagination can develop. We are starting small with a Makerspace activity this next quintile, but we hope to grow so that this is a space that can be used by all students. Please read Mrs. Horton’s note below about how you can help! ACTIVITIES Quintile 4 ends next week on April 25. Status reports will be coming out shortly after that date. There are no activities next week. New elementary activities (8th period) will begin on Tuesday, May 1st. Watch for Activity Sign-Ups coming out next week! MAP TESTING Next week is MAP testing. You will find a schedule below. The best support you can give your child is a good night’s rest and a healthy breakfast. More parent information about MAP can be found at https://www.nwea.org/parent-toolkit/ INTERNATIONAL DAY May 1st is International Day at QSI Dushanbe! From 12 to 1 p.m. students and families will celebrate our diversity by learning a bit more about each other. So far parents from 10 of our 25 countries have signed up to host a table. Thank you! It’s going to be a fun event. Sign up to host a country by emailing Kim Black at kimberley-black@qsi.org EARTH DAY Finally, Sunday, April 22 is Earth Day. QSI Dushanbe emphasizes taking care of our Earth throughout the year, but we will have a special focus on Monday from a local NGO who will lead an educational presentation. Please don’t forget that you still have an opportunity to purchase a QSI shopping bag (see below) to eliminate the need to use plastic! We wish you a wonderful weekend QSI Dushanbe community. Kim Black and QSID Staff Dearest QSI Parents, The QSI Parent Support Group, in support of the QSI Sunshine Committee, is writing to seek your support for a very important celebration that will take place on the 1st of May from 1200-1300. It is International Day, a day that celebrates what makes QSI such an extraordinary place for our children to learn and grow. We currently have 25 countries represented at our school, and that’s just passport countries. Many QSI students, parents and teachers come from multicultural backgrounds, and have come to adopt different heritages and customs through their upbringing. International day is a day for all of us to come together and celebrate the many different countries that we hold near and dear to our heart. It is events like these where we can show the pride we have in our heritage and educate both children and adults on what makes us all uniquely different. On this special day, the students will have a flag parade and carry a flag that they feel represents a part of who they are. They will then place that flag at a table (there may be students who may want to carry more than one flag). At the table, we are requesting parents to volunteer with their children and bring food items of their country or special items unique to their culture, like musical instruments, toys, books or games. We understand that there will be some countries with more people represented than others. Director Kim Black will be contacting parents who have signed up for the same countries so that they can coordinate items that will be provided at the tables. The Parent Support will also allow children to have time to go to all the tables and learn about the many countries represented at QSI. We understand that pulling away from the middle of the workday can be difficult, but words cannot express what your involvement in this will mean to your child/ren and to QSI community. If you are able to help with this special day, please email Director Black with your name, and Country table you would like to volunteer at. Many Thanks, The QSI Parent Support Group SEVEN YEAR OLDSIn the 7 year old class we are starting our science unit on collecting and examining life. Students are exploring living and non-living things and will be learning about animals and their diets and environments as well as different parts of plants. Right now we are growing bean plants in glass jars with paper and water so that we can see the roots growing and watch the process. They will soon be growing and taking care of their own bean plants. We will also be visiting the Botanical Gardens next Thursday (April 26) to collect different leaves and create a class nature book.
FRENCH CLASSEaster egg hunt and other fun games in French classIn the French class, we celebrated Easter with the egg hunt. Not exactly… students were given clues on where to find the password and with the password they were able to find the chocolate eggs as we eat them for Easter in France. A great chance to review vocabulary! We also had role-play with a book seller, a stationery seller, a bank and a client and Monopoly bills to practice how to buy items in France, ask politely information, prices…A lot of fun!
The word “Makerspace” has become a buzzword in schools over the past few years, and QSID is jumping on the bandwagon. A makerspace is exactly what it sounds like it should be: a workspace set aside specifically for creating, inventing and exploring tools and ideas. At our school we hope it will be a place for students to solve problems, tinker, and use their imaginations either as part of class challenges or as part of individual or small group activities. These can be high tech, low tech or no tech. As you do your spring cleaning, or just because you might have items that could be recycled, we would be happy to take them off your hands. From cloth to containers, plastic to play doh, wire to wood, we are looking for clean odds and ends that may be used to create a new toy or added to a sculpture or as part of a student invention we haven’t even thought of yet. Send these things in with your student, and it will be added to our supplies. At the moment, besides these miscellaneous items, we are hoping for a donation of a sewing machine or two. Thanks for your support as we continue to help our students become 21st century thinkers and problem-solvers. |